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COMMERCE - Celebrating achievements in EU Workplace Travel Planning

12 October 2010

Throughout September, the COMMERCE project Opens in a new window organised 6 seminars in the partner cities of Budapest, Bucharest, Kaunas, London, Paris and Plovdiv to disseminate the achievements in workplace mobility planning.

London

In London, the event was attended by a diverse range of delegates from the London Boroughs, Sub Regional Partnerships, Transport for London, NGOs, universities, consultancies, businesses and our project partners from the City of Warsaw.

The day also featured the Golden Mile Mobility Event Opens in a new window, organised by LEPT’s very own Adrian Webb, which took place outside and comprised a huge number of travel awareness stands and activities, none the least test driving your own eBike!

Presentations on COMMERCE and Area Based Travel Plan Networks were accompanied by a roundtable session that brought together the expertise in the room to produce some very interesting suggestions for implementing successful travel plan networks in future. These have been formulated into a report which can be downloaded using the links below. Photos from the event are also available from Flickr Opens in a new window - simply click on the photo and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to look through the seminar pictures.

A big ‘thank you’ has been extended to everyone who has contributed to the COMMERCE Project over the last 3 years in hosting delegations, giving presentations, delivery training and writing reports. The successes of the project are owed in part to you, as are the closer relationships forged with our European city partners!

Available for download now:

Paris

The final conference was organised by ARENE and Regional Council of Île-de-France (CRIF) in the framework of COMMERCE project.To organise the conference, ARENE and CRIF submitted a programme to the PRO’MOBILITE  partners to get their suggestions and ideas, and also a first approval on the date and on their participation together to a round table. 84 persons attended the conference, comprising state and local administration, chambers of commerce, associations, consultants and providers of mobility solutions.  Most of the participants came from municipalities and grouping communities and associations.

 The final conference aimed to :

  • Present the results of the European  project COMMERCEPresent PRO’MOBILITE, regional partnership for work travel plans development in Île-de-France, application of COMMERCE in Île-de-France
  • Promote the local initiatives of mobility
  • advisors, and work travel plan and economical area travel plan implemented during COMMERCE and awarded at a European level (PEWTA). 

The opening speech was made by 2 elected people:

  • One Regional councillor also member of the Board of the STIF  in charge of the revision of the urban transport master plan
  • One Regional councillor also member of the Board of ARENE

The morning was dedicated to the European level:

  • presentation of the COMMERCE project, global overview of the objectives, the methodology and the outcomes
  • Specific focus on the standards : the objectives, the method, the content of the standards and how they have to be used
  • Presentation of the skill share programme: definition of the training programmes, delivering of the skill share actions, outcomes highlighting the specificity of each partner city, situation and strategy of each partner at the end of the project 

The afternoon was dedicated to the regional strategy in IDF called Pro’Mobilité as a consequence of COMMERCE

  • the evolution from COMMERCE to Pro’Mobilité
  • Presentation of Pro’Mobilité : the objectives, the organisation, the partners, the working plan, the tools
  • A panel with all Pro’Mobilité partners to explain why they joined Pro’Mobilité group, what is their specific role within the group and how they contribute to the promotion of WTPs in IDF
  • A panel with the mobility advisors set up thanks to the new disposal of Pro’Mobilité to explain what is the job of Mobility advisors, what are their main stakes on the territory they have in charge, and what is the added value of Pro’Mobilité

The seminar reached participants that were mainly technicians from public authorities and from other organisations (86%). 2% were elected people.

Presentations are available on the PRO’MOBILITÉ website: http://www.promobilite.fr/accueil/detail-evenement/?eventId=9


Bucharest

The National Seminar reunited, along with RATB and CCIB as partners in the COMMERCE project, representatives of Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism and Ministry of Education and representatives of local authorities and public transport operators from important Romanian cities like Constanta, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Giurgiu, Galati, Targoviste, Calarasi and Buzau, and as well forum members: trade union, business and industry associations. The conclusion of the National seminar was that in Romanian cities there is a real need for developing mobility plans and the local authorities must work together with the local transport operators, local chambers of commerce and industry and NGOs for the promotion and support of WTP developments.


Budapest

On 30 September, the event was combined with the STOP campaign, after four days of competition. Presentations were held by partners like Fogasház itself, the Oszkár Group and about STOP as well as the broader context of COMMERCE by Studio Metropolitana.

Fogasház: The NGO organised a similar competition as STOP few years ago. The manager of the organisation commented their failures and achievements.

OSZKÁR: Represents a key partner in STOP, a transportation NGO, who are operating a car-pooling website, connecting travellers between cities. The organisation has prepared the website for STOP and helped a lot in organising the campaign. They presented their operation and the necessity of car-pooling and sharing actions.

SM: Studio Metropolitana presented the conclusions of the COMMERCE project, analysing results and achievements of partner institutions.

      

Plovdiv

The local seminar in Plovdiv was organised as a two-day event on 21 and 22 September, 2010.

The conference began with the presentation of EPOMM+ project in Bulgaria, presented by Mrs. Lucia Llieva, continuing with the experience of Sweden in the urban mobility, presented by our guest, Mr. Johanes Berg from Stockholm. A very interesting part of the conference was the presentation of the project “System for management of the mass urban transport in Plovdiv” and the very short presentation of Plovdiv intentions to develop sustainable urban transport.

Of course the local coordinator of COMMERCE project presented the activities that have been implemented during the life of the 3 year project. A series of other presentations were made – concerning the innovative approaches and decisions to reduce CO2 emissions and the improvement of the urban environment, the ecological urban transport as well as the universities and their contribution to urban mobility.  Around 40 people participated in this conference and enriched their knowledge about mobility management and urban mobility.

On the second day, Energy Agency Plovdiv and the Municipality of Plovdiv organised a demonstration event including a velo procession, and lots of awards were given by Plovdiv companies as sponsors. A very interesting race between cyclists was organised – for the best cyclist. Awards have been given to all of them. A policeman was invited to present and to ask questions about the traffic rules. 

And just a friendly reminder to join ALLINX Opens in a new window, the online platform for mobility management professionals. Workplace travel plan tools, best practice and discussions will continue here, in the COMMRCE Group page.


Lessons learnt from the COMMERCE Project

31 August 2010

As a result of the lessons learnt from the COMMERCE project, a list of recommendations for the development of Workplace Travel Plans has been proposed.

  • Significant progress can be made in integrating WTPs into public and private sector strategies, in cities with little previous awareness, providing you have a comprehensive support package available: Working in a consortium of Leader and Learner partners allows for swift and efficient transfer of knowledge, expertise, empowerment and buy-in. This model is recommended for future STEER projects.
  • Branding is a vital tool in the embedding of Travel Plans into a local framework, both in the eyes of prospective adopters of Travel Plans, and also to the policy makers in making it a tangible service. By branding, one refers to the logos of the Golden Mile and Pro-Mobilité.
  • Whilst Travel Plans afford organisations four broad areas of benefit: health, economic, environmental and social, in general, the best way currently of convincing businesses to adopt a Travel Plan is to provide examples and case studies showing the economic benefit, i.e. the potential cost savings to employers and employees.

 
A full compilation of the recommendations from the COMMERCE project are available here. The following documents are also available to download: